Jeffries faces leadership test as Democrats fight for committee posts to battle Trump

(CNN) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is facing his first big leadership test in the new Trump era as congressional Democrats push for a shakeup in their party’s approach to countering the incoming president.

A handful of House Democrats are taking the rare step of challenging older — and, in their words, ineffective — colleagues for coveted committee leadership positions as they look to start a new chapter of Democratic resistance when President-elect Donald Trump takes office and Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress.

The Democrat vs. Democrat clash is, in part, a fight over the party’s future messengers as it looks to rebuild after crushing losses in 2024. A number of Democrats who were once willing to wait their turn on the leadership ladder have suddenly lost their patience. After watching President Joe Biden wait months to step aside only to hand over the White House to Trump, those Democrats are now more eager to challenge their party’s conventions — including the sacrosanct principle of seniority in leadership.

In public, Jeffries, a reserved leader who is known for being selective about when he puts his thumb on the scale, has not weighed in on whether he would back Rep. Jamie Raskin’s challenge to Rep. Jerry Nadler, the long-serving top Democrat on the influential House Judiciary Committee.

But several Democrats at Jeffries’ leadership table have privately been egging on Raskin, who is 16 years’ Nadler’s junior, as they hunt for the best attack dog in Trump’s Washington, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Raskin, who currently holds the top Democratic spot on the House’s Oversight panel, is choosing to instead run for Judiciary because he considers it the “the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism.”

“Our unified Caucus must strategize and organize like never before—every single one of us working together every single day until we win the House back in 2026 and then beyond that,” Raskin wrote in a letter to fellow Democrats on Monday.

Jeffries, who served on the Judiciary panel since coming to Congress, has spoken with both Nadler and Raskin, but sources would not divulge what was said.

Several Democratic members told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity, that Raskin, a close confidant of leadership through the years, would not have run if Jeffries had urged him against it, though people close to Nadler dispute this.

Raskin and Nadler, who are longtime friends, have also spoken multiple times and even met in person in the lead-up to Raskin’s announcement on Monday.

It’s not the only rank-and-file rebellion that’s taking place against the Democrats “old guard.” Sixty-year-old Rep. Jared Huffman recently announced he would challenge 76-year-old Raul Grijalva, who’s been battling cancer, for the party’s top spot on the Natural Resources committee. (Grijalva then announced he wouldn’t run.) Two other Democrats are vying to replace Rep. David Scott, who is 79, at the House Agriculture Committee.

Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, whose longshot primary challenge to Biden quickly failed, praised his colleagues for taking on committee leadership.

“As a proponent of competition over coronations and talent over tenure, I’m pleased my colleagues are taking some long-overdue steps in that direction,” Phillips told CNN, even though he is retiring and can’t vote for the new positions.

The intra-party challenges also mark a deeper crossroads House Democrats have arrived at over how to take on Trump’s key allies, like House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and House Oversight James Comer, whose panels co-led a failed impeachment inquiry into Biden and have served as ground zero for high-profile partisan attacks on the Biden White House.

Democrats on the Judiciary panel will have to take on Jordan’s crusade against what Republicans describe as the “weaponization” of the federal government, while Oversight committee Democrats will be the counter against Comer’s push to carry out Trump’s desire to cut significant parts of the federal government.

Both Nadler and Raskin are no stranger to public fights with their Republican counterparts but have shown their resistance takes different forms. In the 11-month impeachment inquiry into Biden that Republicans conducted this Congress, Raskin continually got in sparring matches with Comer in hearings and became a regular fixture on cable news.

“Jamie Raskin made mincemeat out of Comer over and over again in the 118th Congress. If that is any indication of how he would do leading the Judiciary Committee, it’s going to be something that a lot of Democrats want to see,” Huffman, who is supporting Raskin, told CNN.

Nadler — who led both impeachments against Trump and has spent seven years as top Democrat on the panel — has his own loyalties within the caucus. He’s revered by many progressives and has already endured a number of cutthroat campaigns, including a nasty congressional primary against a fellow Democratic chairman just two years ago.

Throughout the impeachment investigation, Jeffries appeared to defer to committee Democrats at every turn and only got involved when needed. Behind the scenes, Democrats were constantly deliberating when to respond to Republican claims and when doing so would only amplify the GOP efforts.

By challenging Nadler, Raskin’s vacancy on Oversight offers an opportunity for a deep bench to throw their hats in the ring. Democratic Reps. Stephen Lynch and Gerry Connolly, who have both run for the top post before, are considering trying again, sources tell CNN.

But they will have to contend with younger members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is also weighing whether to leapfrog the seniority on the committee and lead a new era of pushback against Republicans.

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